I always dis-like people who "massacre" recipes and then rate them so low (well duh! It's not like you're some awesome well known chef!), so having said that, I made it per the instructions and it's good (4 stars), but to make it 5 stars, here are my suggestions: Mix 2 tsp each garlic powder and oregano w/ 1 tsp crushed rosemary - rub this onto the pork chops, and do a quick sear in the oil. Use a GOOD brand of pasta sauce (ever hear the theory "buy cheap, get cheap"...well the same holds true in cooking!) I recommend Bertolli Fire roasted tomato sauce w/ cabernet sauvignon! Then to give the dish more depth, don't stick to regular diced tomatoes, I suggest Glen Muir fire roasted diced tomatoes. Instead of a normal bell pepper, I chose to go gourmet and bought fire-roasted red bell peppers...it was Absolutely phenomenal! Also, instead of your regular white mushrooms, swap those for the baby ports - it will give some rustic heartiness to this dish. Even though this dish has dry white wine, the flavours meld SO nicely! It's a fantastic dish! Oh, and make sure you are using fresh mozzarella, not that brick stuff!
DELICIOUS! I was a little hesitant to try this as I lived in Italy for a short time and hold my Italian food to a very high standard. I was very pleased with the turn out. It would be better with homemade pasta sauce instead of using sauce from a jar. But with the added veggies and spices the sauce was great. One major change I did was I only cooked this for 4 hours. I made sure the pork was done. If I had cooked it for the full time the meat would have turned out too tough and not tender at all.
This was delicious. Only problem was the chops came out so tender, they were falling apart in pieces and I couldn't lift out whole ones. Also, this makes A LOT of sauce so either add more chops or do like I did which was to serve spaghetti noodles on the side. I still have a lot of sauce left over. Next time, I will probably 1/2 the sauce. Thanks, Teresa!
I've made this recipe a few times, my daughter LOVES it! The first time I made it exactly as written, the second time I just threw all the ingredients together in the slow cooker. The result is the same. The third time I used chicken instead of pork, which I think tastes much better. The only problem I have had with the recipe is that I find the sauce too liquidy, and I have to thicken it with cornstarch. Not a big deal. A lot of sauce is made so I double the meat and freeze leftovers, they reheat well. This recipe is worth making for a busy mom and kids love it. Thank you for sharing!!!
People are right about the pork being dry but it's not the recipe's fault. Pigs are bred for leanness now and when you braise meat what makes it tender is the fat and connective tissue turning to gelatin from the low slow moist heat. Pork chops these days just won't cut it because they're usually too lean. (It has nothing to do with searing the meat preventing liquid from getting inside.) You will be better off cutting up the fattest most full-of-connective-tissue cut-- like a shoulder arm picnic or Boston blade roast-- or using chicken thighs which are higher in fat and will stay moister longer. I would definitely cook it less than 8 hours too!!!
4 1/2 stars. used frozen chops (did not brown), and poured all ingredients over them in the slow cooker (without browning the ingredients). cut back on the sauce; added some chicken stock; and these turned out great -- tender & flavorful. very easy, i will definetly make again (probably with chicken).
I didn't brown the pork before putting in the slow cooker and they cooked perfect. The dish was wonderful served over rice.
I grew up in a predominately Italian neighborhood; where three generations in the home; was the norm. The grandparents were usually from the Old Country. The smells of food cooking all day long filled the air. This recipe is reminiscent of those days. Awesome flavor! I used fresh Roma tomatoes instead of canned. The Pork was cheap; country style ribs on sale for 169 per pound and it cooked up fork tender. There is a flavor that only comes from slow cooking meat in a tomato sauce. This recipe gets my five star stamp of approval.
The sauce was great! I didn't have fresh mushrooms so used canned (drained) and skipped the wine. (Had that *with* dinner!) I didn't like the pork chops; I'd use chicken thighs next time and cut back on the cooking time by an hour. I used thick cut chops and browned them first. I think the browning seared the outside preventing liquid from penetrating the meat as the chops were dry. So, I shredded the pork and served it over rice and it went over well with the family. I would probably just throw it all in the pot without precooking anything!
As written, the recipe is bland and watery. It needs salt, at a minimum (I can't believe none is called for!), and I'd be careful what kind of pork chop I used in the recipe. Mine came out dry and tough--which I should have expected, frankly, from long cooking of lean meat in an acidic sauce. Another reviewer is totally correct in suggesting the use of a tougher, fattier cut. Other changes I'd recommend would be using flour when browning the chops to help thicken the sauce, and carefully draining the tomatoes. I used dried mushrooms which I thought would help soak up the liquid, but it still was more like soup than sauce. Perhaps next time I'd also leave the cover off the cooker for the last hour or so.
